Museum in Russia Closed Because of Exhibition of War Photos

Metenkov House Museum of Photography in Ekaterinburg was preparing a joint event with the U.S. and British consulates when it was suddenly closed for reconstruction.

(Photo on the cover: Landing of the American troops on D-Day, Omaha Beach, Normandy Coast. June 6th, 1944. By Robert Capa.)

On April 9th, due to the technical reasons, Metenkov House Museum of Photography was closed. The head of the museum, Raisa Zorina, confirmed in the “Kommersant” newsletter that the premise needed reconstruction, “For the last seven years we have needed reconstruction and we were waiting in a queue”.

An unnamed source connected with the newsletter drew a correlation between the event and the fact that on April 10th there was a planned opening of the exhibition, “Triumph and Tragedy: Allies of World War II,” which was prepared with both the U.S. and British consulates in Ekaterinburg. “The museum was closed by [Federal Security Service of Russia] following a direct order from Moscow, which was politically conditioned,” said the source. According to him there were no complaints about the project or its content, but the cooperation between the museum and U.S. and British consulates caused the closure. Public relations from the Federal Security Service Directorate in Sverdlov oblast denied that the Federal Security Service is connected to the closure of the museum.

“We set a goal to tell about the war in a wider content and to show it was a tragedy for the whole world. The exhibition will contain iconic war photos from the 20th century made by American and British photographers. We compiled photos made in the Pacific Ocean, North Africa, Europe. We selected the photographs, and the consulates provided support and helped to solve the issue of the author’s rights,” said Raisa Zorina.